February 02, 2012
Courtesy Craig T. Mathew / Mathew Imaging, Los Angeles Philharmonic Association.
When a famous composer’s centennial rolls around, it’s safe to expect a year full of festivals and seasonal programming featuring his great works. The Los Angeles Philharmonic is paying an ambitiously comprehensive tribute for the 100th anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s death, collaborating with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra to perform all nine of Mahler’s formidable symphonies in just three weeks. Conducted by the Philharmonic’s Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, who burst onto the international conducting scene by winning the inaugural Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in 2004, the Mahler festival is winding to a close, with only Symphonies No. 8 and 9 remaining. The Ninth is the most beloved of Mahler’s symphonies, but the February 4 performance of Mahler’s Eighth (the Symphony of a Thousand) will be something to see: Both orchestras will combine with a chorus of 800-plus soloists, making for over a thousand performers in the historic Shrine Auditorium.
Once they finish in Los Angeles, the orchestras depart for Caracas, Venezuela, where they’ll do it all over again—but in only seven days. We wish them luck! laphil.com.
March 08, 2012
Courtesy Savannah Music Festival
One of the biggest cross-genre music fetes in the country, the Savannah Music Festival kicks off its tenth anniversary on March 22. The celebration starts with a bang; on opening night at the city’s Trustees Theater, Wynton Marsalis leads the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra through a revue of new and traditional big-band swing. The lineup over the next 16 days takes place at venues throughout the city and runs the gamut from gospel to salsa, string quartets to zydeco. Among the highlights are an acoustic double bill with venerable troubadours Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt (pictured above, March 24); country-rock indie darlings Futurebirds (March 29); and several performances by renowned classical violinist Daniel Hope.savannahmusicfestival.org.
August 18, 2011
Walking the line between the screen and studio. Photo © Dustin Cohen
It's a big week for The Dude. Not only is The Big Lebowski (1998) finally out on Blu-Ray, but also the movie's fearless front man, Jeff Bridges, is out of the recording studio: Blue Note Records just released the actor's 11-track, self-titled album. On the boot heels of his Oscar-winning performance as country singer Bad Blake in 2009's Crazy Heart, Bridges, 61, took a year off acting to collaborate with producer T Bone Burnett on the record. Burnett wrote the original music for the film with the late Stephen Bruton, on whom Bridges's hard-living character was based. As a tribute, two of the songs on Bridges' new album are ones Bruton originally intended for Crazy Heart. As for the other tracks, the actor says he's been fiddling with them for years. Although it's a departure from Be Here Soon, the indie-blues album Bridges released in 2000, the new record isn't strictly country. With its easy swagger and offhand depth, more than anything, it's definitively Bridges. The cult hero turned national treasure is ever the ambassador of cool. The Jeff Bridges album, $10; jeffbridges.com. The Big Lebowski: Limited Edition, $17; amazon.com.
On that note: Touring the Southern Blues Trail
February 16, 2012
Robert Workman
After recent turns in Faust and La Bohème, soprano superstar Melody Moore is returning to the New York City Opera to headline the U.S. premiere of indie legend Rufus Wainwright’s first opera, Prima Donna. The French libretto follows aging soprano Régine Saint Laurent (portrayed by Moore) in her attempts to regain fame in 1970s Paris. Wainwright himself found fame in the late ‘90s as a pianist/singer-songwriter/Renaissance Man; since then, he’s released eight albums and two DVDs, won two Juno awards for Best Alternative Album (one for Rufus Wainwright in 1999 and another for Poses in 2002), garnered multiple acting credits and—of coursepenned the critically-lauded Prima Donna. His musical pedigree (he’s the son of folk singers Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle) and flair for orchestral pop make for an easy transition to the live stage. Englishman Tim Albery, a longtime advocate for innovative new opera, is directing the production, which opens February 19 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House. Together, Wainwright, Albery and Moore weave betrayal, nostalgia and loss into an emotional tapestry celebrated as “a love song to opera.” Tickets $25; February 19, 21, 23 and 25; nycopera.org
